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subject-verb agreement

means the subject and verb must agree in number. This means both need to be singular or both need to be plural.

Sentence Completeness

Subject (who) + Predicate (tells something about subject)

Run-on Sentences

two or more independent clauses are joined without a word to connect them or a punctuation mark to separate them

Comma

a punctuation mark indicating a pause between parts of a sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list and to mark the place of thousands in a large numeral.

semi colon

a punctuation mark used to connect independent clauses

Apostrophes (S)

possessive is before the S (boy’s dog)
plural is after s (soccer teams’)

Parts of speech

adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, verbs
(separate quizlet)

comman noun

a class of objects (sister, basketball, coffee)

proper noun

a SPECIFIC person, place, thing, or idea (Ashley, Celtics, Starbucks)

active voice

The subject of the sentence performs the action

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Observations

«This usage stuff is not straightforward and easy. If ever someone tells you that the rules of English grammar are simple and logical and you should just learn them and obey them, walk away, because you’re getting advice from a fool.» (Geoffrey K. Pullum, «Does It Really Matter If It Dangles?» Language Log, Nov. 20, 2010)
«The thoughtful, nondichotomous position on language depends on a simple insight: Rules of proper usage are tacit conventions. Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing things—not because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice. Standardized weights and measures, electrical voltages and cables, computer file formats, the Gregorian calendar, and paper currency are familiar examples.» (Steven Pinker, «False Fronts in the Language Wars.» Slate, May 31, 2012)

The Difference Between Grammar and Usage

«In this book, grammar refers to the manner in which the language functions, the ways that the blocks of speech and writing are put together. Usage refers to using specific words in a manner that will be thought of as either acceptable or unacceptable. The question of whether or not to split an infinitive is a consideration of grammar; the question of whether one should use literally in a nonliteral sense is one of usage.» (Ammon Shea, Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation. Perigee, 2014)

Arbiters of Usage

«The present-day scholarly concept of usage as a social consensus based on the practices of the educated middle class has emerged only within the last century. For many people, however, the views and aims of the 17th-18c fixers of the language continue to hold true: they consider that there ought to be a single authority capable of providing authoritative guidance about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ usage. For them, the model remains that of the Greek and Latin, and they have welcomed arbiters of usage such as Henry Fowler who have based their prescriptions on this model. In spite of this … no nation in which English is the main language has yet set up an official institution to monitor and make rules about usage. New words, and new senses and uses of words, are not sanctioned or rejected by the authority of any single body: they arise through regular use and, once established, are recorded in dictionaries and grammars. This means that, with the classical model of grammar in rapid decline, the users of English collectively set the standards and priorities that underlie all usage.» (Robert Allen, «Usage.» The Oxford Companion to the English Language, ed. T. McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1992)

«Most of the little manuals which pretend to regulate our use of our own language and to declare what is and what is not good English are grotesque in their ignorance; and the best of them are of small value, because they are prepared on the assumption that the English language is dead, like the Latin, and that, like Latin again, its usage is fixed finally. Of course, this assumption is as far as possible from the fact. The English language is alive now—very much alive. And because it is alive it is in a constant state of growth. It is developing daily according to its needs. It is casting aside words and usages that are no longer satisfactory; it is adding new terms as new things are brought forward; and it is making new usages, as convenience suggests, short-cuts across lots, and to the neglect of the five-barred gates rigidly set up by our ancestors.» (Brander Matthews, Parts of Speech: Essays on English, 1901)

Usage and Corpus Linguistics

«English is more diverse than ever in all hemispheres. Research into ‘new Englishes’ has flourished, supported by journals such as English World-Wide, World Englishes and English Today. At the same time, the quest for a single, international form for written communication becomes more pressing, among those aiming at a global readership…

«Many kinds of resource have been brought to bear on the style and usage questions raised. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is the first of its kind to make regular use of large databases (corpora) of computerized texts as primary sources of current English. . . . The corpora embody various kinds of written discourse as well as transcriptions of spoken discourse—enough to show patterns of divergence between the two. Negative attitudes to particular idioms or usage often turn on the fact that they are more familiar to the ear than the eye, and the constructions of formal writing are privileged thereby. Corpus data allow us to look more neutrally at the distributions of words and constructions, to view the range of styles across which they operate. On this basis, we can see what is really ‘standard,’ i.e. usable in many kinds of discourse, as opposed to the formal or informal.» (Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Linguists and Usage

«As a field of study, usage doesn’t hold much interest for modern linguists, who are drifting more and more toward qualitative psychology and theory. Their leading theorist, Noam Chomsky of MIT, has acknowledged, with no apparent regret, the pedagogical irrelevance of modern linguistics: ‘I am, frankly, rather skeptical about the significance, for the teaching of languages, of such insights and understanding as have been attained in linguistics and psychology’ … If you want to learn how to use the English language skillfully and gracefully, books on linguistics won’t help you at all.» (Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2009)

Correctness

«In the past, unproven ideas about ‘the Standard’ have often been used to forward certain social interests at the expense of others. Knowing this, we do not describe the misuse of the conventions of punctuation in some students’ writing as ‘a crime against civilization,’ although we do point out the mistakes. What interests us far more is that these apprentice writers have interesting ideas to convey, and manage to support their arguments well. They should be encouraged to turn to the task of writing seriously and enthusiastically rather than be discouraged because they cannot punctuate a restrictive clause correctly. But when they ask, ‘Does spelling count?’ we tell them that in writing, as in life, everything counts. For academic writers, as for writers in a wide variety of fields (business, journalism, education, etc.), correctness in both content and expression is vital. . . . Language standardization may have been used as a tool of social oppression, but it has also been the vehicle of broad collaboration and communication. We are right to treat usage both warily and seriously.» (Margery Fee and Janice McAlpine, Guide to Canadian English Usage, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2007)

«Usage is trendy, arbitrary, and above all, constantly changing, like all other fashions—in clothing, music, or automobiles. Grammar is the rationale of a language; usage is the etiquette.» (I. S. Fraser and L. M. Hodson, «Twenty-One Kicks at the Grammar Horse.» The English Journal, Dec. 1978)

E.B. White on Usage as a «Matter of Ear»

«We were interested in what Dr. Henry Seidel Canby had to say about English usage, in the Saturday Review. Usage seems to us peculiarly a matter of ear. Everyone has his own set of rules, his own list of horribles. Dr. Canby speaks of ‘contact’ used as a verb, and points out that careful writers and speakers, persons of taste, studiously avoid it. They do—some of them, because the word so used, makes their gorge rise, others because they have heard that we sensitive lit’ry folk consider it displeasing. The odd thing is that what is true of one noun-verb is not necessarily true of another. To ‘contact a man’ makes us wince; but to ‘ground a plane because of bad weather’ sounds all right. Further, although we are satisfied to ‘ground a plane,’ we object to ‘garaging an automobile.’ An automobile should not be ‘garaged’; it should either be ‘put in a garage’ or left out all night.

«The contraction ‘ain’t,’ as Dr. Canby points out, is a great loss to the language. Nice Nellies, schoolteachers, and underdone grammarians have made it the symbol of ignorance and ill-breeding, when in fact it is a handy word, often serving where nothing else will. ‘Say it ain’t so’ is a phrase that is right the way it stands, and couldn’t be any different. People are afraid of words, afraid of mistakes. One time a newspaper sent us to a morgue to get a story on a woman whose body was being held for identification. A man believed to be her husband was brought in. Somebody pulled the sheet back; the man took one agonizing look, and cried, ‘My God, it’s her!’ When we reported this grim incident, the editor diligently changed it to ‘My God, it’s she!’

«The English language is always sticking a foot out to trip a man. Every week we get thrown, writing merrily along. Even Dr. Canby, a careful and experienced craftsman, got thrown in his own editorial. He spoke of ‘the makers of textbooks who are nearly always reactionary, and often unscholarly in denying the right to change to a language that has always been changing …’ In this case, the word ‘change,’ quietly sandwiched in between a couple of ‘to’s,’ unexpectedly exploded the whole sentence. Even inverting the phrases wouldn’t have helped. If he had started out, ‘In denying to a language … the right to change,’ it would have come out this way: ‘In denying to a language that has always been changing the right to change …’ English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education—sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across a street. (E.B. White, «English Usage.» The Second Tree From the Corner. Harper & Row, 1954)

Pronunciation: YOO-sij

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Lately people have been visiting this site looking for the answer to this question:

«What is the difference between grammar and usage?»

Here is my answer: Grammar has to do with the correct placement of words in a sentence. Usage involves using the proper word.

These are grammatical errors:

Me and Joe rode home together.

There’s many ways to publish a book.

In the first example, we need a subject pronoun, I, as the subject of the sentence. It would be perfectly fine to say «Joe gave me a ride home» (object pronoun). But if we rode home together, Joe and I rode home (subject pronouns).

In the second error, we need the plural verb are–not is–to agree with the plural subject, ways. However, if there were only one way to publish a book, there’s (there is) would be correct.

Those errors have to do with the grammatical role the words play in the sentence.

Below are errors in usage–a word is used incorrectly:

What is your principle reason for applying? (Principle is used incorrectly. The proper word is principal.)

Please insure that Mr. Mohammed arrives safely. (Insure is used incorrectly. The proper word is ensure.)

No doubt there are much more elaborate explanations for the difference between grammar and usage. This brief one works for me. I hope it helps.

Lynn
_________________________________________________________
Other search spellings: grammer, gramar, differince, diference, explination

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One of the best and most well known writers in English literature, William Shakespeare is credited with inventing over 1700 words that appear in his plays. He changed nouns into verbs into adjectives thus misusing words to communicate.If Shakespeare could be so liberal with the language how important is it really to follow the rules of proper grammar?

Aaron Wall posted yesterday How Hard is it to Write Clearly?, following a trail of quotes from George Orwell on the importance of improving the clarity of language. I agree completely that it’s important to communicate effectively in all writing, but the post got me thinking how important things like typos are or how important is it to always follow the proper rules of grammar. It also got me thinking how imprtant it was to correctly use words in order to communicate effectively.

Clarity is important yes, but it’s not necessary to adhere to the rules to be clear. Take for example Lewis Carroll’s Jaberwocky:

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun
  The fruminous Bandersnatch!

You’d be lying if you said you knew what a Jabberwock, a Bandersnatch, or a Jubjub bird is, but there’s no denying that are all to be avoided. Clarity in communication most definitely. Carroll made up each of those words, yet from the words around them we can infer an awful lot about them. Of course Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll were writing fiction and most of our sites are works of non-fiction.

Speak the Language Of The Dog: But What If Your Dog Quacks Instead Of Barking?

The gurus at grokdotcom urge you to speak the language of the dog if you want to sell to the dog. The advice is very good in that if you want to connect with your customers you need to speak their language and not yours. What happens though, when your customers refer to things improperly? What happens if instead of barking you customers quack?

If your site is tech oriented and appeals to a younger crowed you might find many visitors to your site using 133t or h4ck3r speak. If they’re using it you probably should too. You can most likely break any rule of grammar since your visitors won’t mind and will actually expect you to use new variations of words. It’s part of the culture. If anything proper use of the language in this instance would cause you to lose more of your visitors than to keep them.

A number of years back I worked in an environment alongside a variety of artists, writers, musicians and other creatives. The creative process was an ongoing thing and much of it in this circle involved bending the language. We worked in a book store and one day someone might have referred to the cash register as the registry. A few days later someone else might have called it the registrine and later another may have referred to it as the vegestrine. In time vegestrine could have become the accepted term for a cash register. Bending the language in this way was done both for the humor of the moment and to keep the creative juices flowing. The words and grammar are all misused, but in turn new words and grammar were created. Those words while essentially nonsense clearly communicated a meaning within our circle.

The Importance Of Grammar And Spelling For A Commercial Site

If your site is a commercial one I think adhering to proper grammar, correct spelling, and using words correctly is a good thing. It’s an essential thing really. The lack of any can cause your business to be seen as less than professional. The occasional typo is probably fine as most of us will forgive that sort of thing, if we even notice it, but an over abundance of mistakes conveys a very amateur impression of your site and business. You may not be the best speller, but if you’re in business you should be able to hire someone to at least proof your writing.

I might not be the best person to speak about this, since I know this site is filled with a variety of errors due mostly to my lack of typing skills. I’ve corrected many, but know many more errors still abound. Still it’s something that I should work to correct more as even just a handful of typos on a page could easily turn off potential clients. Then again the two people who have mentioned it most to me both became clients after seeing the typos. I have no idea though, how much business I might potentially lose having the errors on the site. Do as I say, not as I do. It is important to properly use the language in business communication.

Blogs And Other Informal Writing

While I do think it important to fix grammatical errors on what are essentially sales pages on the site, I’m much less concerned with them on the blog. Blogs are generally written much more informally and as a result I think grammatical mistakes are much more likely to be forgiven and even enjoyed as they can often provide a glimpse into into the personality behind the blog. Mistakes make us human and seeing a blogger make the same mistake as you could provide a common bond. I don’t advocate making mistakes on purpose, but I don’t see them as leading to the same potential problems as they would in more formal communication.

While on a sales page I am communicating for leads, on the blog I’m simply talking. My writing voice is a little different from my speaking voice, having developed somewhat independently of each other over the years, but I try to keep them very much the same. One of the common rules taught to me in school that I have always broken is ending sentences and phrases with a preposition. I’m aware of it almost always when I do it, but it sounds more natural to me and it makes its way often into my writing. I’m sure somewhere the English teachers of my youth are groaning, but I doubt anyone reading here cares much, and I’d be willing to bet most of the offending sentences have never been noticed.

The Use Of Language In Search Marketing And Advertising

You’ll have any easier time in most cases ranking a page for a misspelling than you will for ranking the same page for the proper spelling of a word. I don’t advocate purposely misspelling words on your pages, since ranking or not if the people reading them are turned off you won’t profit from the misspelling. Still there are plenty of websites profiting solely through the use of common misspellings to words often typed into a search engines. They may not be the highest quality of sites, but many make a good deal of money for their owner. People do misspell and mistype words and markets exist to capitalize on both.

Creativity is an important part of advertising and marketing. If you can successfully bring a new word or phrase to our attention you can attract attention to yourself, your site, and your business. You become the source for the addition to the language. The term Ajax had nothing to do with web applications until Jesse James Garrett of adaptive path used it in that context.

Words like ecommerce and email were created out of the language and now adding an ‘e’ in front of anything is synonymous with being online. A company like eBay was able to capitalize on that little ‘e.’ It’s become a common design trend to use lower case letters to start a word that would more commonly be capitalized. Rules can be successfully broken.

I think it depends on where the writing appears and the context in which it appears. In a sales later or business proposal it’s essential to get things right and proper. One of the quickest ways to get your resume tossed is to misspell a few things. You generally want to come across professionally in all business writing. Yet I can easily think of industries where getting things wrong can work well. Think Toys ‘R’ Us with the backwards ‘R.’ That single backwards letter is a great marketing ploy and helps brand the company as one geared towards children.

Where your writing is meant to be more informal as in a blog I think it much less important to adhere to every rule. You should probably still aspire to getting it right, but it’s not going to be as important to miss a few things here and there. I’ll even argue that breaking a few grammatical rules in your blog can make you appear more human, which is often one of the main reason for having a blog.

I agree with Orwell that it’s important to improve clarity in writing. I think it’s important to improve clarity in all forms of communication. Still I can’t help, but think of Shakespeare manipulating the language for his own purposes. Or of Lewis Carrol’s Jabberwocky with it’s majority of made up words communicating clearly and effectively. Breaking the rules is ok, and breaking those rules wth a purpose can be very successful. There’s no doubt though, that both Shakespeare and Carrol knew the rules the were breaking. And so should you. It’s ok misuse the language at times, but it’s best if you know that you are misuing the language and understand your reasons for doing so.

Download a free sample from my book, Design Fundamentals.

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Grammar is the language system that allows words to change their form, their order in a sentence, and combine with other words in novel ways. This applies to both written and spoken language. In this article, we will look at the main principles of English grammar.

Who makes the rules of English grammar?

If we think for a moment about the origins of the English language (don’t worry, this won’t take long!), we can see that it has been influenced by many other languages, including French, Latin and Greek. However, English is classed as a Germanic language, as it was heavily influenced by Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain around the 5th century. This is why the syntax and grammar of English are similar to German.

English grammar was originally influenced by its Germanic ancestry, but who makes the rules now? Well — nobody, and everybody! There is no official regulating body that decides on the rules of English grammar, and like most languages, the rules rely on a general consensus.

In this article, we will look at the principles of English grammar; knowing these will help improve your communication skills and give you an advantage in your English language studies.

Elements of English grammar

Below we have covered some of the most essential elements of English grammar. Keep in mind that we also have individual articles for each of these elements, which cover the topics in more detail.

The main elements of English grammar we’ll be looking at today are: morphemes, clauses, conjunctions, types of phrase, grammatical voice, tenses, aspects, types of sentence, sentence functions, and word classes.

Morphemes

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language; this means it cannot be reduced without losing its meaning.

The word luck is a morpheme as it cannot be made any smaller.

Morphemes are different from syllables, which are units of pronunciation.

There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes.

Free morphemes

Free morphemes can stand alone. Most words fall into this category, regardless of how long they are. Take the word ‘tall’ for example — it has a meaning on its own, you can’t break it down into smaller parts (such as t-all, ta-ll, or tal-l). ‘Ostrich’ is also a free morpheme; despite having more than one syllable, it cannot be broken down into smaller parts.

Note that the word ‘tall’ contains the word ‘all’, but this has a completely different, unrelated meaning, so ‘tall’ is still a morpheme. The same principle applies to ‘ostrich’ — it may have the word ‘rich’ in it, but this is completely unrelated to the original word, and so ‘ostrich’ is still a morpheme in its own right.

Free morphemes can be either lexical or functional.

Lexical morphemes give us the main meaning of a sentence or text; they include nouns (e.g. boy, watermelon), adjectives (e.g. tiny, grey), and verbs (e.g. run, parachute).

Functional morphemes help to hold the structure of a sentence together; they include prepositions (e.g. with, by, for), conjunctions (e.g. and, but), articles (e.g. the, a, an) and auxiliary verbs (e.g. am, is, are).

In the phrase, ‘The tiny boy is running.’

The lexical morphemes are ‘tiny’, ‘boy’, and running’, and the functional morphemes are ‘the’, and ‘is’.

Bound morphemes

Bound morphemes cannot stand alone and have to be bound to another morpheme.

Bound morphemes include prefixes, like pre-, un-, dis- (e.g. prerecorded, undivided), and suffixes, like -er, -ing, -est (e.g. smaller, smiling, widest).

Prefixes and suffixes both come under the category of ‘affixes’.

Two major clause types

Clauses are the building blocks of sentences. Clauses contain a subject (a person, place, or thing) and a predicate (the part of the sentence that contains a verb or information about the subject).

In English, there are two major clause types; independent clauses and dependent clauses.

Independent clauses

An independent clause (also called the main clause) is part of a sentence that works on its own — it can be a complete sentence without any additions.

Examples of independent clauses:

Simon started crying.
We will have some dessert.
Merle lives in a small town.

Dependent clauses

Dependent clauses (also known as subordinate clauses) do not form a complete sentence on their own -they have to be added to independent clauses to make grammatical sense.

Examples of dependent clauses:

When he broke his leg.
After the main course.
Where it’s always sunny.

Now let’s put the independent clauses and the dependent clauses together:

Independent clause	Dependent clause
Simon started crying	when he broke his leg.
We will have some dessert	after the main course.
Merle lives in a small town	where it’s always sunny.

As you can see, the independent clauses make sense on their own and with the dependent clauses added. The dependent clauses do not make sense unless they are attached to an independent clause.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that “conjoin” or “connect” words, clauses, or phrases. They are an important grammatical tool as they help to form longer, more complex sentences, with simple sentences.

Thanks to conjunctions, the short, simple sentences ‘I sing’, ‘I play the piano’, and ‘I don’t play the guitar‘ can become one longer, more complex sentence: ‘I sing and I play the piano but I don’t play the guitar’. The conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘but’ connect the shorter sentences.

Coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions join two parts of a sentence that have equal meaning or are equal in importance. This could be two words or two clauses (see the previous section for more on clauses).

There are seven coordinating conjunctions in English. An easy way to remember them is with the acronym ‘FANBOYS’:

For

And

Nor

But

Yet

Olivia has three rabbits and ten fish.
Ben didn’t want to speak to his parents or his grandparents.
I love roast dinners but I can’t stand sprouts.

Subordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions join two parts of a sentence that have unequal meanings. In other words, they join an independent clause to a dependent clause (again, see the section above on clauses if you’re not sure what this means).

Subordinating conjunctions are used to show cause and effect, a contrast, or a relationship of time/place between clauses.

Examples of subordinating conjunctions:

Peter didn’t leave the house due to the tiger in his front garden.
Peter is going to the bakery if the tiger leaves his garden.
The tiger has been there since midday.

Correlating conjunctions

Correlating conjunctions are two conjunctions that work together in a sentence; they are also known as paired conjunctions.

Examples of correlating conjunctions:

I’m going to eat either soup or casserole for dinner.
Mia was not only rude but also quite mean.
My mum is taking both my sister and me to the beach.

Types of phrase

A phrase is a group of interrelated words that can function on its own, or as part of a sentence or clause. A phrase is different from a clause because it does not require a subject and a predicate (see our section on clauses for more information on this).

There are five different types of phrase: noun phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase and adverb phrase.

Let’s take a look at them now.

Noun phrase

A noun phrase functions as a noun; it consists of the noun and its modifiers and/or determiners.

Modifiers — An optional word which gives more meaning to a noun, pronoun, or verb.

Determiners — Words used in front of nouns to show when you are referring to something specific. They add information regarding quantity, ownership, and specificity.

The small brown dog was yapping.
I work in the city centre library.
Look at that massive fish!

Adjective phrase

An adjective phrase functions as an adjective, meaning that it modifies (i.e. gives more information about) a noun or pronoun. An adjective phrase consists of the adjective and its modifiers and/or determiners.

The film was very short.
This section contains some absolutely fascinating books.
Bill is even stronger than all of the boys in his class

Verb phrase

A verb phrase functions as a verb; it contains a verb and any auxiliary verbs (e.g. be, have, do), plus any modifiers and/or determiners.

I am waiting for my big day to come.
She has written a lot of books.
The show will be starting soon.

Prepositional phrase

A prepositional phrase contains a preposition and its object, along with any modifiers and/or determiners.

The cow jumped over the moon.
Her shoes were inside the wardrobe.
We ventured into the briny deep.

Adverb phrase

An adverb phrase (sometimes known as an adverbial phrase) functions as (you guessed it) an adverb. An adverb phrase explains how, why, where, or when a verb is done.

They stirred the stew with a wooden spoon.
He finished the exam at record speed.
Every day I feed the ducks.

Adverb phrases can show how often an event occurs.- pixabay

Grammatical Voice

In English, there are two types of grammatical voice: the active voice and the passive voice.

The active voice is much more common — in the active voice, the subject does the action. In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon.

Compare the sentences below and note how the active voice draws attention to the doer of an action, whereas the passive voice draws attention to the thing being acted upon. The thing being acted upon is known as the object.

Active voice	Passive voice
Jenny ate a pizza.	The pizza was eaten by Jenny.
Everybody loves the sunshine.	The sunshine is loved by everybody.
The snail left a trail.	A trail was left by the snail.

The subject is the focus of a sentence — it is what (or who) the sentence is about. In the sentence ‘Jenny ate a pizza’, Jenny is the subject, and the pizza is the object. In the sentence ‘The pizza was eaten by Jenny’, the pizza is the subject.

Tenses

Tenses tell us whether something is in the past, present or future. See the table below for a comparison of the three main tenses.

Some linguists argue that the future isn’t technically a ‘tense’ in English; however, it is now commonly taught as tense and it’s helpful to put it here so you can see how the verb moves from past to future.

Past tense	Present tense	Future tense
We walked.	We walk.	We will walk.
I went to work.	I go to work.	I want to go to work.
He baked a cake.	He bakes a cake.	He will bake a cake.

All of the examples above are the «simple» versions of each tense. There are a total of four versions of each tense, creating twelve different tenses — to find out more, read the following section on aspects.

Aspects

Aspects give us additional information about a verb by telling us whether an action has been completed, is continuous, is both, or is neither. Aspects work together with tenses to add precision.

The two main aspects are progressive and perfective. We will look at examples of each one, and see what happens when we pair them with different tenses.

Past progressive tense	Present progressive tense	Future progressive tense
The girl was eating chocolate.	The girl is eating chocolate.	The girl will be eating chocolate.
We were playing together.	We are playing together.	We will be playing together.
I was cooking pasta.	I am cooking pasta.	I will be cooking pasta.

You can describe verbs or actions as continuous regardless of whether they are in the past, present or future. For example, compare the simple past tense of ‘The girl ate chocolate‘ to the past progressive tense of ‘The girl was eating chocolate‘. To say the girl ‘was eating‘ suggests that the action occurred over a period of time, and so it was continuous.

Perfective

The perfective aspect tells us that the verb or action is either complete, will be complete, or will have been continuous up to a certain point.

Past perfect tense	Present perfect tense	Future perfect tense
The girl had eaten chocolate.	The girl has eaten chocolate.	The girl will have eaten chocolate.
We were playing together.	We have played together.	We will have played together.
I had cooked pasta.	I have cooked pasta.	I will have cooked pasta.

As you can see, the perfective aspect can tell us that an action is complete, e.g. the present perfect tense ‘I have cooked pasta’, or it can tell us that it will be complete, such as the future perfect tense of ‘I will have cooked pasta’.

The perfective aspect can also tell us that an action has been continuous up to a certain point e.g. ‘I have lived in Tokyo for ten years‘ (an example of the present perfect tense) tells you how long I have lived in Tokyo, up to the present moment. Similarly, the phrase ‘Next week, I will have lived in Tokyo for eleven years‘ (an example of the future perfect tense) tells you how long I will have lived in Tokyo at a point in the future (in this case, next week).

The twelve tenses

When we pair up aspects with tenses, we get a total of twelve tenses; these tell us whether an action is in the past, present or future, along with its “status” (whether it is continuing or completed). Below is a list of all twelve tenses with examples:

Tense	Example
Simple past	I saw a ship on the horizon.
Past perfect	She had written her essay.
Past progressive	They were climbing the steep hill.
Past perfect progressive	I had been thinking about it all night.
Simple present	Mary sings a melody.
Present perfect	I have witnessed a disaster.
Present progressive	He is eating his dinner.
Present perfect progressive	Sajid has been painting all afternoon.
Simple future	Our team will win the tournament.
Future perfect	I will have completed every level on this game once I beat the final boss.
Future progressive	I will be straightening my hair tonight.
Future perfect progressive	At the end of the term, Judy will have been teaching at this school for a decade.

Types of Sentence

There are four main types of sentences.

Simple sentences
Compound sentences
Complex sentences
Compound-complex sentences

You can spot the sentence type by looking at the clauses.

Simple sentences

Simple sentences usually communicate things clearly. The sentences do not need added information as they work well on their own, and they consist of a single independent clause.

James waited for the bus.
I looked for Mary at the park.
We all walked to the shop.

Simple sentences usually communicate things clearly. The sentences do not need added information as they work well on their own; they consist of a single independent clause.

Compound sentences

Compound sentences combine two or more independent clauses, joining them with a comma, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction (see our section on conjunctions for more information on what these are).

Like simple sentences, compound sentences do not include dependent clauses (clauses that rely on the rest of the sentence). If the link (e.g. a comma or conjunction) between the two (or more) independent clauses weren’t there, they could both work independently as simple sentences.

I need to go to work but I am too sick to drive.
He ran out of money so he couldn’t buy lunch.
The sun is shining and the air is fresh.

Complex sentences

I heated my food in the microwave because it had gone cold.
Amy sent back her item after she realized it was damaged.
I tried to get the attention of the cashier whose wig had fallen off.

Compound-complex sentences

This type of sentence combines a compound sentence with a complex sentence.

Compound-complex sentences contain two (or more) independent clauses as well as at least one dependent clause. Because of this, they are usually the longest sentence type, as they include a lot of clauses.

Since leaving school, I have been working in an office and I am saving up to buy a car.
I was thirsty so I went to the fridge to grab a can of soda.
Peter waited patiently until after midnight, but the tiger refused to budge.

Different sentence types help us express complex situations, such as having a tiger in your garden — Unsplash

Sentence Functions

Sentence functions describe the purpose of a sentence. There are four main sentence functions in the English language: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative.

Declarative

Declarative sentences are the most common. We use declarative sentences to:

Make a statement.
Give an opinion.
Provide an explanation.
State facts.

I love hiking.
It’s cold because he left the windows open.
The capital of Kenya is Nairobi.

Interrogatives

Interrogative sentences are used to ask questions and typically require an answer. Here are the different types of interrogative sentences along with examples:

Yes / No interrogatives e.g. ‘Have you ever been to India?’

Alternative interrogatives (questions that offer two or more alternative answers) e.g. ‘Would you like tea or coffee?’

WH-interrogative (who / what / where / why / how) e.g. ‘Where is the post office?’

Negative interrogatives (a question that has been made negative by adding a word such as not, don’t aren’t and isn’t) e.g. ‘Why aren’t you in bed?’

Tag questions (short questions tagged onto the end of a declarative sentence) e.g. ‘We forgot the milk, didn’t we?’

Imperatives

Imperative sentences are predominantly used to give a command or a make a demand. They can be presented in several ways, such as:

Giving instructions.
Offering advice.
Making a wish on behalf of someone else.
Extending an invitation.
Giving a command.

There is often no subject present when forming imperative sentences because the subject is assumed to be you — the reader or the listener.

Sit down!
Set the oven to 180 degrees.
Please, take a seat.

Exclamative

Exclamative sentences are used to express strong feelings and opinions, such as surprise, excitement, and anger. A true exclamative sentence should contain the words what or how and usually end with an exclamation mark (!).

What a nice surprise!
Oh, how lovely!
What’s that?!

Exclamative sentences help us to express strong feelings

— Pixabay

Word Classes

Word classes help us to better understand the elements that form phrases and sentences.

There are four main word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are considered lexical word classes and they provide the most meaning in a sentence.

The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are functional word classes; they give structure to sentences by «glueing» them together, and they also show the relationships between lexical items.

See below for a summary of each word class, along with examples.

Lexical word classes

Here is a table containing the lexical word classes.

Word class	Function	Examples	Examples in sentence
Nouns	Naming people, places, objects, feelings, concepts, etc.	Maria, holiday, Paris.	Maria had a holiday in Paris.
Verb	An action, event, feeling, or state of being.	Run, bake, laugh.	I ran home to bake you a cake.
Adjectives	Describing an attribute, quality, or state of being; modifying a noun to add this description.	Rainy, tiny, ridiculous.	It was a rainy day so I stayed inside my tiny house and wrote ridiculous poems.
Adverbs	Describing how, where, when, or how often something is done.	Yesterday (when), quickly (how), over (where).	Yesterday, I saw the fox jump quickly over the dog.

Functional word classes

Here is a table containing the functional word classes.

Word Class	Function	Examples	Examples in sentence
Prepositions	Showing direction, location or time.	Before (time), into (direction), on (location).	Before dinner, she went into the café on the hill.
Pronouns	Replacing a noun.	She, her, he, him, they, them.	She took Rover for a walk and then gave him some treats.
Determiners	Clarifying information about the quantity, location, or ownership of a noun.	His, the, some.	His car broke down so he opened the trunk to grab some tools.
Conjunctions	Connecting words in a sentence.	And, but, because.	Sammy and Jim played snooker but couldn’t finish the game because the venue closed early.
Interjections	Expressing an emotion or reaction.	Wow, uh oh, Yippee, Yikes.	Wow, a crocodile — uh oh, it’s heading right for us!

English Grammar — Key takeaways

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. It cannot be reduced beyond its current state without losing its meaning.
Clauses contain a subject and a predicate. In English, there are two major clause types: independent clauses and dependent clauses.
Conjunctions are words that connect two words, clauses, or phrases. They help to form longer, more complex sentences from simple sentences.
A phrase is a group of interrelated words that can function alone, or as part of a sentence or clause. Phrases differ from clauses because they don’t require a subject and predicate.
There are two types of grammatical voice: the active voice and the passive voice.
Tenses give us a sense of time by telling us whether something is in the past, present or future.
Aspects give us additional information about a verb by telling us whether an action has been completed, is continuous, is both, or is neither. Aspects work together with tenses.
There are four different types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.
There are four main sentence functions: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative.
The four main word classes are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are lexical classes that give meaning to a sentence. The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are function classes that are used for grammatical or structural reasons.

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Ampersand

Spell out the word «and.» Use the ampersand (&) only when it is part of a proper name (for example, AT&T).

Common Abbreviations

Common abbreviations are acceptable only inside parenthesis:

cf. for compare
e.g. for example
et al for and others
etc. for and so forth
i.e. for that is

Degrees and Acronyms

Do not leave space in abbreviations containing periods. Use periods in abbreviations of academic degrees. Do not use periods in acronyms and abbreviations of organizations, agencies, and other groups.

Do not use the in front of acronyms that are pronounced like a word, such as NASA, but do use the in acronyms that are pronounced by their letters, such as the FBI.

Examples: E.M.B.A M.B.A. Ed.S. Ph.D. ACBSP

ACHE ACT CLEP GMAT NCATE

SACS a.m. p.m. B.A. B.S.

Capitalize the names of academic degrees when abbreviated or spelled out. The word degree is not capitalized. Use lower case for general references to degrees.

Examples: Education Specialist degree master’s degree program M.B.A.

baccalaureate

Synonymous with bachelor’s degree.

bachelor’s degree

Lowercase. Acceptable as an informal reference to any undergraduate degree.

Master of Arts, Master of Science

It is acceptable to use master’s degree on any reference for either of these degrees. If the type of degree is pertinent to the story, be as specific as possible.

Plurals

Plurals of abbreviations and number do not need apostrophes. (PCs, CDs, 1990s)

Symbols, Etc.

Spell out the following:

Units of measurement

feet, pounds (not ft., lbs.)

Note: The abbreviations may be used in tables and figures.

Place names

Alabama, United States (not AL, US, USA)

Note: In some instances, it may be preferable to abbreviate a state name, as in the case of giving a hometown in Class Notes, for example. In that instance, the traditional abbreviation should be used (Tenn.), not the postal abbreviation (TN).

Traditional Abbreviations for States

Alabama	Ala.
Alaska	Alaska
Arizona	Ariz.
Arkansas	Ark.
California	Calif.
Colorado	Colo.
Connecticut	Conn.
Delaware	Del.
District of Columbia	D.C.
Florida	Fla.
Georgia	Ga.
Hawaii	Hawaii
Idaho	Idaho
Illinois	Ill.
Indiana	Ind.
Iowa	Iowa
Kansas	Kans.
Kentucky	Ky.
Louisiana	La.
Maine	Maine
Maryland	Md.
Massachusetts	Mass.
Michigan	Mich.
Minnesota	Minn.
Mississippi	Miss.
Missouri	Mo.
Montana	Mont.
Nebraska	Nebr.
Nevada	Nev.
New Hampshire	N.H.
New Jersey	N.J.
New Mexico	N. Mex.
New York	N.Y.
North Carolina	N.C.
North Dakota	N. Dak.
Ohio	Ohio
Oklahoma	Okla.
Oregon	Oreg.
Pennsylvania	Pa.
Rhode Island	R.I.
South Carolina	S.C.
South Dakota	S. Dak.
Tennessee	Tenn.
Texas	Tex.
Utah	Utah
Vermont	Vt.
Virginia	Va.
Washington	Wash.
West Virginia	W. Va.
Wisconsin	Wis.
Wyoming	Wyo.

Calendar designations

dates, months, years, days of the week

For dates and years, use figures. Do not use st, nd, rd, or th with dates, and use Arabic figures. Always capitalize months. Spell out the month unless it is used with a date. When used with a date, abbreviate only the following months: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.

Course names

political science (not pol. sci.)

Titles

Abbreviate titles when used before a full name: Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Rep., the Rev., Sen. Military titles should be spelled out, and capitalized, when used as a formal title before a person’s full name (Lieutenant Colonel William C. Pruett, Major Leslie Relkin) and abbreviated thereafter (Lt. Col. Pruett, Maj. Relkin).

Generally, capitalize formal titles when they appear before a person’s name, but lowercase titles if they are informal, appear without a person’s name, follow a person’s name or are set off before a name by commas. Also, lowercase adjectives that designate the status of a title. If a title is long, place it after the person’s name, or set it off with commas before the person’s name.

Unfamiliar proper names

If an unfamiliar abbreviation is to be used, the first reference should be spelled out. The abbreviation may be used thereafter. Do not follow an organization’s full name with an abbreviation or acronym in parentheses or set off by dashes. If an abbreviation or acronym would not be clear on the second reference without this arrangement, do not use the acronym.

Examples: National Association of Schools of Music NASM

CAPITALIZATION

Adjunct

Do not capitalize. The word adjunct denotes someone who teaches at the university without permanent status as a faculty member. It also is occasionally used to show that a professor with faculty appointment in one academic department also teaches in a second department.

Awards and Honors

Capitalize the proper names of awards or honors. Use lower case for general references.

Examples: Keller Key the key

Turris Fidelis athletic awards

Board of Trustees

Capitalize the proper name of the governing body of the university. Use lower case for general references to the governing body or when used as a modifier.

Examples: the Board of Trustees the board meeting

Buildings

Capitalize the name of university structures. Use lower case for general references to the structures.

Examples: Norton Auditorium the fine arts center

Collier Library the library

Colleges, Cost Centers, Departments, and Offices

Capitalize the names of colleges, departments, and administrative cost centers or offices when the complete title is used. Use lower case for general references.

Examples: College of Arts and Sciences arts and sciences

Department of Biology biology department

Committees and Organizations

Capitalize the proper names of committees and organizations. Use lower case for subsequent shortened references to committees and organizations or when used as a modifier.

Examples: Faculty Senate the senate minutes

Composition Titles

Apply the following guidelines:

Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
Capitalize an article—a, an, the—or a word of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.
Italicize the titles of books, journals, magazines, movies, newspapers, operas, plays, long poems, collections of poetry, television series and works of art.
Use quote marks around the titles of articles or stories from within larger compilations; television episodes (either an individual show or an episodic title from a television series); shorter musical compositions or pieces from within a larger work; lectures; and shorter poems.
The Chicago Manual of Style recommends using a consistent style if several longer and shorter works are listed together. Make them all italic.
Do not italicize or put in quotes the Bible and books that are primarily works of reference, including almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications. Do not italicize software titles such as WordPerfect or Windows.
Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is known to the American public by its foreign name.

Course Titles

Capitalize course titles when the proper name is used. Use upper case without periods for abbreviations of departments. Use lower case for general references to course titles (with the exception of English and other languages).

Federal, Government, National, and State

Capitalize the words federal, government, national, or state when they are part of official titles. Use lower case when these words are used in a general sense or as modifiers.

Examples: federal funding Government Printing Office

State of Alabama state requirements

Greek

Capitalize whether referring either to the nationality or to fraternity members. Also capitalize names of fraternities and sororities: Sigma Chi Fraternity, Alpha Delta Pi Sorority. Do not use the Greek alphabet or informal abbreviations such as ADPi. Use the full name and spell them out. When referring to the department within the Division of Student Affairs that oversees the fraternities and sororities on campus, capitalize Greek Life.

Holidays and Observances

Capitalize specific holidays or observances. Do not capitalize general references to holidays and observance.

Examples: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day commencement

Memorial Day homecoming activities

Homecoming

Capitalize when referring to the specific weekend when alumni are welcomed back to campus. Lowercase otherwise.

Majors and Minors

Capitalize the word English and the name of any other language. Do not capitalize the titles of courses of study (names of majors).

Name of the University

Capitalize the official title, University of North Alabama, and the shortened reference to the University. (The capitalization signals that the reference is to this specific university.) Capitalize the word University when it is part of an official title and when it indicates possession. Do not capitalize university when it is used as a modifier.

Examples: the President of the University university activities

the University’s SOAR program university-owned property

Titles and Academic Ranks

Capitalize official titles. Use lower case for subsequent references to such officials.

Examples: Dean of Enrollment Management the dean’s office

President of the University the president

Professor Sue Jones the professor

World Wide Web, Internet

Capitalize when using the complete proper name or the shortened version. Do not capitalize when used as an adjective.

Italics

Use italics for emphasis, but use them sparingly.

Use italics to indicate the titles of books, magazines, journals, newspapers, films, plays, paintings, operas, oratorios, long poems published separately, collections of poetry, law cases, scientific names of plants and animals, and in-house publications.

Examples: The Flor-Ala Lights and Shadows To Kill a Mockingbird

Numerals

Spell out numbers from one to nine used in the text. (There were three students running.)

Spell out numbers that begin sentences. (Eighty-seven faculty members applied …)

Use Arabic numerals in a sentence containing a series of numbers. (… 27 faculty, 16 staff members, 42 students…)

Use numerals with abbreviations or symbols in tables and charts. (50 lbs., 9″, 87%)

Use numerals all in addresses, dates, decimals, fractions, measurements, ratios, scores and statistics, exact dollar amounts, page references, and hours of the day used with a.m. or p.m.

Use figures for the ages of people: the 5-year-old boy or the students is 19 years old.

Treat percentages and amounts of money like other numbers. (78 percent, $1,001) Use the word percent following a numeral (42 percent) in the text of the report. Use the numeral followed by a percent sign (42%) in figures and tables.

If the text involves an infrequent use of numbers, you may spell out the percentages and amounts of money if you can do so in no more than two or three words. Consider a hyphenated term as one word. (One hundred dollars, twenty-three percent)

Spell out a fraction standing alone, but use numerals to express a whole number and a fraction. (One-third, 1 1/2) If two or more fractions appear in the same sentence, use one form consistently.

In reporting decimals, fractions always require a zero before the decimal point for values less than one, unless a value of one or greater is impossible. In general limit the extent of decimal places to two, rounding as needed. (0.54 cm)

Punctuation

The purpose of punctuation is to add expression and meaning to written words. Methods of punctuation vary, and authorities differ in their interpretation of rules. The modern trend is to use as few marks of punctuation as necessary for clarity and readability. Use the following rules as a general guide.

Apostrophe

Use an apostrophe to indicate possession and to indicate the omission of letters.

Examples: University’s mascot athletes’ grades ten o’clock

Do not use an apostrophe to indicate the plural of abbreviations or numbers.

Examples: PCs CDs 2000s

More on Possessives

The Associated Press uses the following guidelines for creating possessives.

For singular common nouns and plural nouns not ending in s, add ‘s: the school’s needs, the student’s book, the horse’s feed.

For singular common nouns ending in s, also use ‘s unless the following word also begins with an s, which would create a triple sibilant: the witness’s answer, the witness’ story.

For plural nouns ending in s and nouns plural in meaning but singular in form, add only an apostrophe: the classes’ meeting rooms, mathematics’ rules.

For proper names ending in s, add only an apostrophe: the Jones’ house, Descartes’ theories.

Pronouns have separate forms for possessive, and none use an apostrophe: mine, ours, your, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, whose.

For compound words, use the rules above to add an apostrophe or ‘s to the word closest to the object possessed: the major general’s order, the major generals’ orders; the attorney general’s lawsuit, the attorneys general’s lawsuit.

Use a possessive form after only the last word in a series of owners if ownership is joint: Bill and Mary’s home. Lisa and Tony’s vacation; or after each owner’s name if ownership is individual: Paul’s and Carla’s vehicles.

Try to avoid double possessives: WRONG: He is a friend of the college’s.

Try to avoid creating possessive form for inanimate objects.

Colon

Use a colon to introduce a series after as follows or a similar term, but not after such verbs as are or include. The sentence preceding the colon should be a complete sentence. Space once following the colon before beginning text.

Example: These steps must be completed for admission to the University: (1) file …

Comma

Dates. Use a comma in a date whose order is month, day, and year. If such a date occurs in the middle of the sentence, place a comma after the year as well.

Example: The construction began on April 20, 2014, and was finished two years later.

Do not use a comma between a month and a year or between a season and a year.

Example: The committee completed its report in spring 2015.

Introductory phrases and clauses need to be separated from the main clause with a comma.

Example: Wearing a clown suit, the professor kept the students’ attention for the entire 50 minutes.

Numbers

Group numbers into thousands with commas. 1,500

Parenthetical Expressions

Set off parenthetical or transitional expressions with a comma before and after.

Example: The title and function of governing boards, however, will vary.

Example: The Planning Committee, which meets on a weekly basis, is responsible for developing a strategic plan for the department.

When a word like however, moreover, or nevertheless begins a sentence, follow it with a comma.

Series

Use a comma between words, phrases or clauses in series unless the last two items in the series are to be considered one unit.

Example: Among the offices in 601 Cramer Way are those of admissions, financial aid, purchasing, and human resources and affirmative action.

Example: The dining facilities are available to all students, faculty, staff, and guests.

Dash

Type a dash as two hyphens with no space between the hyphens and the words that precede and follow. A dash denotes an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause.

Example: The vice president offered a plan—it was unprecedented—to raise revenues.

Ellipsis

Treat an ellipsis, the three dots that connote omission of words, as though it were a single three-letter word. Put a space before and after it but no spaces between the dots: He said he would go, … and soon he did. If the material in a quote has been eliminated at the end of one sentence or the beginning of another, use a period after the last word of the initial sentence and then an ellipsis between it and the next sentence: She likes the class. … Her mentor is teaching it.

Ellipses are usually unneeded at the beginning or end of the quoted material. The omission of what came before or after is implied by the quote marks. An ellipsis might be desirable at the end of a quote to indicate when the speaker herself has trailed off without finishing a sentence.

Exclamation Point

Use the mark to express a high degree of surprise, incredulity or other strong emotion. Avoid overuse. A well-written sentence can express surprise or strong emotion without an exclamation point.

Hyphen

Use a hyphen when two or more words are used as a single adjective preceding a noun, such as in the following:

Examples: full-time faculty in-service training part-time student

off-campus sites self-study process three-hour course

Use a hyphen when two or more words must be treated as one, or restructure the sentence.

Examples: three-quarter-hour intervals

three quarter-hour intervals

Twenty-four students

Do not use a hyphen for words formed with the prefixes anti, co, post, pre, pro, pseudo, over, re, semi, sub, supra, un, and under, except in the following special situations.

Exceptions

Second element is capitalized or is a figure (un-American, pre-1914)

To distinguish homographs (recreate/re-create, unionized/un-ionized)

Second element is more than one word (pre-Civil War)

Do not use a hyphen in words such as the following:

Cooperate database extracurricular frontline

Multipurpose online postsecondary subcommittee

Refer to the dictionary for proper hyphenation of prefixes and suffixes for more words.

Do not use a space before or after a hyphen.

Quotation Marks

Always type commas and periods inside quotation marks; semicolons and colons outside. Question marks and exclamation points appear inside the quotation marks only if they are the original punctuation of the quoted material.

Use quotes around titles of:

Articles or stories within larger compilations
Television episodes (either an individual show or the episode title of a TV series)
Shorter musical compositions or pieces from within a larger work
Shorter poems or poems published in a larger work

Use a consistent style if several longer works and shorter works are listed together. Make them all italic.

Semicolon

Use semicolons between items in a series when the items contain commas.

Example: The committee was composed of the following: the Vice President for Academic Affairs, chair; an assistant professor of English representing the Faculty Senate; and a student appointed by the President of the University.

Use a semicolon to separate two independent clauses that are not linked by a conjunction

Example: The participants in the first study were paid; those in the second were not paid.

Slash

Acceptable in phrases such as 24/7 or 9/11, but otherwise should be confined to special situations such as fractions, web addresses or to denote the end of a line of quoted poetry.

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Who makes the rules of English grammar?

Elements of English grammar

Morphemes

Free morphemes

Bound morphemes

Two major clause types

Independent clauses

Dependent clauses

Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions

Correlating conjunctions

Types of phrase

Noun phrase

Adjective phrase

Verb phrase

Prepositional phrase

Adverb phrase

Grammatical Voice

Tenses

Aspects

Perfective

The twelve tenses

Types of Sentence

Simple sentences

Compound sentences

Complex sentences

Compound-complex sentences

Sentence Functions

Declarative

Interrogatives

Imperatives

Exclamative

Word Classes

Lexical word classes

Functional word classes

English Grammar — Key takeaways